England’s Jadon Sancho, Mason Greenwood and Phil Foden named on Golden Boy shortlist.. but face competition from European hotshots Erling Haaland, Ansu Fati and Vinicius Jr to land prestigious Under 21 award
- A 20-man shortlist for the 2020 Golden Boy award has been finalised
- Borussia Dortmund duo Jadon Sancho and Erling Haaland are nominated
- Mason Greenwood, Phil Foden and Bukayo Saka have also made the cut
- Haaland is the favourite to land the prize after his goalscoring achievements
England stars Jadon Sancho, Mason Greenwood and Phil Foden have all made the 20-man shortlist for the 2020 Golden Boy award.
Arsenal‘s Bukayo Saka is also in the running along with Premier League new boys Ferran Torres and Fabio Silva.
Sancho finished as runner up to Atletico Madrid‘s Joao Felix last season and the forward may fancy his chances at going one step further this time around but the competition is strong.
Jadon Sancho has made the 2020 Golden Boy shortlist after finishing second last year
Manchester United’s Mason Greenwood is also in the running after an impressive 2020
Fellow England international and Manchester City star Phil Foden has also been nominated
His Borussia Dortmund team-mate Erling Haaland has also the made the shortlist and is arguably the favourite to take home the award.
The Norway striker grabbed his first international hat-trick earlier this week in just his sixth senior appearance meaning he has 11 goals in 10 appearances for club and country in the 2020-2021 calendar.
Last season he managed 44 goals in 40 matches for both Red Bull Salzburg and Dortmund.
Erling Haaland is arguably the favourite to pick up the award after an outstanding year
Sancho also had another impressive 2019-2020 campaign with 20 goals and 20 assists in all competitions.
He has also started the new season strongly with a goal and two assists in his first three games.
Foden and Greenwood both managed to force their way into the Manchester City and Manchester United first-team this year.
Greenwood scored 19 goals in all competitions last season while Foden scored eight goals and made nine assists.
Barcelona and Real Madrid have two players apiece on the shortlist.
Barca new boy Sergino Dest joins Ansu Fati – who had a breakthrough campaign in 2019-2020.
Fati, 17, managed eight goals and has had a flying start under Ronald Koeman with three goals and one assist i his first three LaLiga matches this season.
He also received his first call-up to the Spain national squad and signed a bumper new Barca contract in September – which includes a £367million release clause.
Real’s Vinicius Jr and Rodrygo complete the nominations from Spain.
Rodrygo scored nine goals last season despite missing some of the campaign with injury while Vinicius managed five goals and four assists.
Bayern Munich’s Alphonso Davies is also one of the contenders after helping the club win the German treble including the Champions League.
Ansu Fati enjoyed a breakout campaign in 2019-2020 and has started this season strongly
Alphonso Davies was one the standout players for Bayern Munich on their run to the treble
The full-back was one of the best players for the Bundesliga side in their run to the final with the electric 19-year-old given the nickname ‘the Roadrunner’ by team-mate Thomas Muller.
Davies’ fellow Canadian international Jonathan David has also been nominated after an impressive season on loan with Belgian side KAA Gent. The Lille forward scored 23 goals and made 10 assists in all competitions.
Rennes’ Eduardo Camavinga, who has been linked with a future move to Real Madrid, PSG’s Mitchel Bakker and Ajax’s Ryan Gravenberch make up the rest of the shortlist.
The winner is set to be announced before the end of the year.
